Dialogues for justice, public interest
and the common good

(CNS):
A day after 193 member states of the United Nations adopted
the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, the CSO Partnership
for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) together with
grassroots activists, faith-based groups and NGOs organized
a side event at the margins of the UN summit to discuss
pressing issues affecting the marginalized and frontline
communities in the context of the post-2015 development
agenda.

"GDP does not tell us what is happening on the
ground, it is the leaders from the margins and frontlines,
like you, do! You tell the stories of the high cost that is
being borne by our earth and our communities," renowned
environmental activist Dr Vandana Shiva said as she
delivered the forum’s keynote address via video
message.

FROM THE MARGINS AND
FRONTLINES

The one-day activity gave space for
grassroots organisations and activists to give first-hand
testimonies on how they continue to struggle with
injustices, inequities, exploitation, and the plunder of
their natural resources.

Norma Maldonado from People's
Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS), Guatemala, highlighted
the irony of corporations that limit seed access for farmers
and small-scale food producers that need it the most.
“Unless the 'Global Goals' can guarantee food sovereignty,
we cannot deliver on these targets,” said Norma. Food
sovereignty is a concept that refers to the peoples’ right
to healthy and culturally appropriate food as well as their
right to define their own food and agriculture
systems.

"We want our seeds. Trade treaties ensure that
companies are above people and that governments are into
business and not governance. We are killing mother Earth to
eat junk food. To grow food we need land but that is being
grabbed by the companies”, said Norma.

Mazeda Akter
Uddin, National Women's Coordinator at ASAAL (Alliance of
South Asian American Labour) exposed the human rights
violations faced by migrant women workers in New York. She
lamented that many South Asian migrant women workers are
being abused and discriminated, even within the USA. They
are paid less and can be terminated without any reason or
notice.

Two civil society representatives - Eni Lestari, a
migrant worker in Hong Kong and affiliated with
International Migrants Alliance (IMA), and Nazma Akhter, a
former garment worker from Bangladesh—who were duly
selected to speak at the UN General Assembly but were later
denied permission in the inter-governmental meetings-- also
had their say in this Dialogue.

"I am not surprised that I
was not approved by the President of the General Assembly to
speak. I do not have an uplifting story to tell that makes
it possible to believe that poverty can be solved by
'scaling up' skills or credit or growth. Mine is not a story
of rags to riches. My story is an unglamorous story of
poverty, exploitation, migration and discrimination of
millions of women around the world", said Eni [Watch her
video address online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-MWuSiDRfY
].

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND?

Sara Flounders,
who leads International Action Centre and is a noted writer
based in the US, said, "The scourge of war and the enormous
military expenses are missing from discussions around
world's problems. In the period since Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs) were announced in 2000, US wars have been the
greatest source of infrastructural destruction and cause of
deaths of millions of refugees."

When the US discusses
sustainable development goals and environmental devastation,
one thing is always left out of the discussions and that is
US militarism. The Pentagon is the world's worst polluter of
Green House gases and yet it has a blanket exemption in all
climate agreements," added Sara.

Paul Quintos, from IBON
International and Campaign for People's Goals, wondered why
similar promises were being pledged again after 15 years.
“The declaration says: Leave no one behind, but in reality
people have been, and are being, pushed back,” Paul
said.

The whole-day event ended with a strong resolve from
civil society to engage the implementation of the 2030
Sustainable Development Agenda and hold governments
accountable to their
commitments.

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